Oct 01 2014

Shades of Milk & Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Delight is something I probably shouldn’t inquire too deeply about, so I will simply say that Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal was a delight. I knew that Regency romances were a Thing, and I knew that not having read Jane Austen is a gap in my education, and so I am sure that there are conventions of the genre that Kowal is playing around with that went past me, but for all of my not really being the target audience, I enjoyed the heck out of the book.

Jane is the plain daughter of the Honourable Charles Ellsworth, a well-to-do landowner in the neighbourhood of Dorchester during the English Regency. She is versed in the womanly arts, particularly music and glamour, a kind of magic-making practised by pulling upon strands within the ether; mostly this work is done individually, but sometimes it can be done collectively. It is largely an art of illusion, sometimes stationary, sometimes accompanying music, and sometimes being more like a short movie.

The Honourable Charles’ other daughter, Melody, has “a face made for fortune” and far better marriage prospects, as a maid of 18, several years younger than Jane, who is nearly reconciled to becoming a spinster. Events, of course, intercede.

There are wealthy and noble neighbours, the FitzCamerons; there is a captain in the Royal Navy, one Henry Livingston, with whom the sisters played when they were children, now grown handsome and dashing in HM service; there is a Mr Dunkirk, in whom both sisters appear to have an interest; there is his sister, Miss Beth Dunkirk, who becomes a friend, but has a mysterious and likely tragic history; there is a nearly invalid mother, with convenient fainting spells; there is a Mr Vincent, itinerant and slightly disreputable glamourist retained by the FitzCamerons; there are also various servants, who do not rate.

Everyone, of course, has a secret, and some characters have several.

The FitzCamerons give a ball; everything is not as it seems. Intentions are hidden, then misconstrued, then deliberately played false. Lives are callously put in danger, but saved in the nick of time. Unfortunately, that puts still more in danger and the ending arrives in a rush, with thudding heartbeats and the likelihood of a deadly duel, first hindered and then abetted by the magic of glamour.

Is there a happy ending? Well of course there is, but not for everyone, not even some of the more sympathetic characters.

Kowal has a deft touch with the characters, none of whom is without a flaw, and the misunderstandings that arise from social convention are key to several points in the plot. The pace is one of the particular pleasures of the novel, leisurely as a country walk at first, then quick as a duellist’s draw at the height of the action. There are pairings and some droll commentary to analyze in things such as the chapter titles, but that would get in the way of the delight. And for now, I am happy to be charmed, and delighted, and just come along for the ride.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/01/shades-of-milk-honey-by-mary-robinette-kowal/

Sep 30 2014

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

Now this is how young adult science fiction should be written!

The three books in this trilogy are The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men. They were wonderful. These books addressed wide-ranging topics from terrorism and tyranny to morality and how difficult love can be, all while telling a fast-paced science fiction tale of human colonization on a planet that already had a sentient species existent. The writing was very good, the characterization was excellent, the little bits and pieces of world-building that make a place different and yet real were all there. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these and they’ll probably end up on my to-be-read-again pile.

It wasn’t hard science fiction, which is usually one of my favorite genres (space opera FTW!), but the science bits that were in there were completely believable and didn’t distract me by popping my suspension-of-disbelief bubble.

I’ll be looking for more books by this guy.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/30/the-chaos-walking-trilogy-by-patrick-ness/

Sep 30 2014

The Powerless Series Omnibus (Books 1-3) by Jason Letts

A friend once gave me some good advice: life is too short to read bad books. She’s right.

The three books in this trilogy are The Synthesis, The Shadowing, and The Stasis. I got halfway through the second chapter of the first book and began wondering if I had the fortitude to continue through all three. That led to realizing that I had no obligation whatsoever to read all three, and so I promptly gave it one star on Goodreads and deleted the books from my Kindle. These are definitely Young Adult Fantasy books, but the tropes were old and worn and the writing was merely adequate, and it just didn’t capture me. There is so much stellar Young Adult fiction out there that no one should spend anytime reading mediocre examples.

Part of me will always wonder if I missed out on an especially tasty bit of world-building or characterization or even just good descriptions of Things Unusual, but even so, life is too short for bad books, and so I’m moving on.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/30/the-powerless-series-omnibus-books-1-3-by-jason-letts/

Sep 29 2014

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer

It is time for me to get off of my patootie and actually write up some of these books that I’ve been reading. At this point in time I am three trilogies and two novels behind, which doesn’t speak very well of my time management or my self discipline.

Regardless, here we go with trilogy the first, The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. This trilogy consists of three books (shocking, I know) – Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. I believe throughout the trilogy the author was attempting to achieve a sense of eeriness, what with the patch of land somewhere unspecified in the U.S. being eaten up by something the military calls a tremendously bad ecological disaster but which is really a creepy sentient world that is checking us out.

There are boundaries. There are tunnels through to the heart of “Area X,” as it’s called. There are expeditions, many of them, and there’s the Southern Reach where something only known as Central but presented as something rather CIAish is running things. People disappear. Plants write enigmatic words on a tower that goes down into the earth. A lighthouse contains the left-behind journals of every single failed expedition (so all of them, really), and sometimes people come back from failed expeditions (the kind where everyone is presumed dead), but they aren’t quite themselves, and then they die horrific deaths of cancer. There are weird howling creatures, and of course time works differently there.

It’s supposed to be creepy. It’s supposed to be a horror/maybe-sci-fi thriller. It’s supposed to give you chills.

It didn’t.

I didn’t mind reading them. I didn’t feel particularly forced into finishing the trilogy just for the sake of finishing it, but I wasn’t deeply involved with the books either. The characterization was a bit flat. I didn’t really care much about what was happening, or to whom. There were some good bits that I thought were original and I’m glad I read them, but I wouldn’t recommend this for someone looking for a really engrossing read.

I’ve liked Jeff VanderMeer’s other books. I’m not sure why these fell flat, but they did. Maybe he was trying to be Clive Barker and couldn’t quite pull it off.

Yay, only two trilogies and two books to go!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/29/the-southern-reach-trilogy-by-jeff-vandermeer/

Sep 28 2014

Journey Into the Heart by David Monagan

This is an incredible story. The daring, energy, and optimism of the men who pioneered cardiology in the twentieth century are truly extraordinary. This book focuses primarily on Andreas Gruentzig, the East German cardiologist who developed and refined angioplasty. The story becomes a Greek tragedy as success leads to hubris and hubris leads to nemesis. Yet the work of Gruentzig and his precursors lives on and has changed the lives of thousands of people suffering from heart disease. Gruentzig himself is practically a figure from an Ayn Rand novel, larger than life and seemingly superhuman, whose appetite for risk and pushing the limits unfortunately led to his untimely demise. This book is thus both inspiring and cautionary. But it does support the thesis that progress is the work of a few extraordinary individuals who stand head and shoulders above the rest of us.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/28/journey-into-the-heart-by-david-monagan/

Sep 28 2014

Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss

“It’s time for me to read Names for the Sea,” I told the friend who had sent me a copy. Some books are like that, resting placidly in the to-be-read pile for months before suddenly announcing, somehow, that it is time to read them. And indeed it was; despite a personal schedule that veers from hectic to frantic, I zipped through the book in just a couple of days, impatiently awaiting the next time I could take even a few minutes to read a little bit more.
Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/28/names-for-the-sea-by-sarah-moss/

Sep 27 2014

Cystic Fibrosis by David Orenstein

Excellent book. I started this book expecting to be depressed by accounts of patients not living past childhood, but it turns out that with currently available medical care patients can expect to live into adulthood and even to old age. They will need regular treatments and may have to make many trips to the hospital throughout their lives, particularly for lung infections, but otherwise CF patients can expect to live mostly normal and happy lives if they receive the proper care. I used to be dubious about the benefits of modern medicine, but recent experiences, as well as books like this, have bolstered my faith in its efficacy. In spite of the troubles we face in the modern era, we are still living in an age of wonders.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/27/cystic-fibrosis-by-david-orenstein/

Sep 27 2014

The War with Hannibal by Livy

Livy is too patriotic to be completely trusted as a historian, but even he cannot help but convey a grudging admiration for the towering figure of Hannibal. He has nothing good to say about Carthage in general, and he works in some malicious gossip about Hannibal that is probably nothing more than just that, but as a historian he is forced to admit that for many years no Roman commander was the equal of Hannibal and every Roman army that took the field against him was defeated. You can audibly hear him thanking the heavens that Scipio finally appeared on the scene to save Rome’s honor. Yet this book shows what kind of people the Romans of this period were, the way they stubbornly held on when all seemed lost and prevailed in the end, and many historians have considered their victory in this war the apex of Roman achievement, after which decline inevitably set in. Hannibal, alas, deserved a better nation to serve than Carthage, but his genius left its mark on military history for ages to come.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/27/the-war-with-hannibal-by-livy/

Sep 26 2014

The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France by R.J. Knecht

This book was BORING. But it was not entirely without merit. It educated me considerably on the degree to which religious strife has played a role in the history of France. One tends to think of France as a thoroughly Catholic country, but there was once a flourishing Protestant movement. It is tantalizing to speculate how France might have evolved if the Huguenots had not been stamped out root and branch; perhaps she would have thrived and prospered the way other Protestant countries have thrived and prospered. This seemed possible with the accession of Henry IV, but he paid a heavy price for his religious tolerance. My eyes were glazed over throughout most of this volume, but here and there there were some interesting bits of information. Not a book I would recommend to those with weak stomachs or short attention spans.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/26/the-rise-and-fall-of-renaissance-france-by-r-j-knecht/

Sep 20 2014

A World at Arms by Gerhard Weinberg

The author’s name suggests that he is of German descent, but he is one of the most anti-German WWII historians I have ever read. He does not accept that the Versailles treaty was an injustice to Germany, nor does he buy into the claim that Hitler admired the British and would have rather allied with them than fought them. He heaps ridicule on the Indian nationalist Chandra Bose for supposing that Germans and Japanese would be more benevolent colonial rulers than the British, and he tears to shreds A.J.P. Taylor’s argument that Hitler was not primarily responsible for starting the war. For him there is no question about where the war guilt lies. This was a lengthy work, full of tactical and diplomatic detail, but its thorough documentation serves as a healthy refutation of much of the revisionist accounts of the war that are becoming fashionable in some circles. This is not a book I would recommend as introduction to WWII, but it is a must-read for scholars, professional and amateur.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/20/a-world-at-arms-by-gerhard-weinberg/